De Heus takes majority stake in Ukrainian feed producer

Dutch feed manufacturer, De Heus, says it has signed a deal to acquire a majority stake in D-Mix in Ukraine, giving it a foothold in feed manufacturing in that country after 10 years of exporting product to Ukraine.

The alliance will trade as Koudijs Ukraine. De Heus said the deal is expected in Q2 2019.

Family-owned business D-Mix is located in Zolochiv in Western Ukraine. With a production capacity of 80,000 tons, it manufactures concentrates, specialty feeds and complete feeds, mainly for poultry and pigs. It also has facilities for crushing sunflower seeds and soybeans.

Construction of a new D-Mix premix factory is scheduled to get underway soon and is set to be operational by early 2020. The day-to-day management of the joint venture will be in the hands of the existing manager, Fedir Shopsky, said De Heus.

The Dutch player is betting on the size of the livestock market in Ukraine further increasing and, consequently, the demand for high-quality and effective animal feed.

“The Ukrainian government welcomes foreign investors who contribute additional knowledge and experience in the field of animal feed, livestock farming and farm management,”​ noted De Heus, adding that only a limited number of foreign companies have entered the Ukrainian animal feed market so far.

West African production facility ​

Last month we reported on how De Heus De Heus was looking to strengthen its foothold in West Africa, with its export division, Koudijs Animal Nutrition, building a new feed facility in Ghana.

The plant is to be located on a 500 acre-site near Accra; the company said the new factory would be one of the largest compound feed production plants in Ghana, with a production capacity of up to 90,000 tons a year. It will be the Dutch group’s first plant in West Africa.

The mill will have capabilities to produce multi-species feeds, said a spokesperson for De Heus. “Taking our current sales in Ghana into account, we will produce mainly poultry and fish in this plant.”​

The factory is set to be up and running within a year, he said.

Ghana is of interest to De Heus for a number of reasons, he continued, but the principal one being the fast population growth in that country and in West Africa in general.

“Currently, there are about 50 million people living in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. It is expected that the population [of those two countries combined] will double to almost 98 million citizens in 2050.​

“That enormous demographic pressure results in a major challenge for the regional food supply. Regional livestock farming will have to professionalize in order to respond to this rapidly growing demand for food. Based on our expertise, we strongly believe that we can contribute to further strengthening local livestock farming.”​